KENEDY RANCH, South Texas - April 23rd-25th 1999 In April 1999 we went on a birding weekend to the Kenedy Ranch. It was a privately organized tour with 2 experienced Texas birders. I believe the Kenedy Memorial Foundation have changed the rules on access to the Ranch, so please have a look at their own website for contact information. KENEDY RANCH The Ranch, south of Kingsville, is to the east of Hwy 77, the major route to the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It is owned and managed by the Kenedy Memorial Foundation and is over 235,000 acres in size. It is considered the last large tract of native coastal prairie habitat in Texas and for over a century it has been a highly protected game preserve. This area was once home to the last tribe of Karankawa Indians. There are vast areas of native grasses and oak mottes, migrating sand dunes, salt flats, bays and artesian wells, providing habitat for the diverse wildlife on the ranch, although we only saw a few deer, a Texas Horned Lizard (endangered) and a land turtle (not sure of the species, but also endangered). The birdlife is prolific! We drove down from Houston on the Thursday afternoon and stayed in a motel at Kingsville, so that we would be sure to be at the rendez-vous point on time, on the Friday morning. We'd been informed that the group would not wait for late-comers, and everyone had to be signed in to the Ranch together. We met at the ranch gate, south of the Sarita Rest-stop, on Hwy 77, and then proceeded to bird along the ranch road on our way to the San Pedro Camp, our home for the next 2 nights. The camp was constructed in the 19th century, before the ranch was purchased by Captain Mifflin Kenedy, the main house being used as a residence until the 1920's. Our accomodation was very comfortable, with most of the rooms having private bathrooms. Electricity was supplied by generator & we had fun barbecuing both nights, and there was also a good propane gas oven in the kitchen. The cost for the 3 days was $180 per person, when last checked in April 2001. We all took our own food and beverages for the weekend, to keep the costs down. The tour guides did supply morning coffee and water and sodas throughout the day, while touring the Ranch. Its best to take a large cooler, as the camp fridge was not large enough to accommodate everyone's supplies. THE BIRDING On Friday morning, before arriving at the Ranch, we had a great start to the trip by getting our first life bird of the weekend - a Harris' Hawk, perched on a post by Hwy 77, near Riviera. On the ranch we easily saw the South Texas specialities : Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, Tropical Parula, Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, Green Jay, Hooded Oriole and Buff-bellied Hummingbird. The total list for the whole group was about 155 -160, but we didn't pick up as many as we weren't always in the right place at the right time! Nevertheless we are very satisfied with the 108 species that we did get, and my life list has now grown to 328. The weather was hot & very windy (20-30 mph on Friday) which kept away not only the mosquitoes (good!), but also the migrating warblers, etc, that we were hoping for (not so good!). The wind did not keep away the ticks, though - anyone going in the future be warned! The second trip the following weekend had perfect weather conditions for a good count of migratory birds - their total list topped 200. We rose at 5:30 each morning in order to get an early start and were rewarded with great looks at the Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet singing his heart out very near the camp. We then car-pooled in pick-ups and SUV's and spent the rest of the day driving over the ranch's caliche roads, picking up 17 lifers on Friday, 18 on Saturday and 5 on Sunday. We would like to thank the leaders of our trip and the many more experienced members of our group, who helped us see our 40 life birds. Highlights were Greater Roadrunner, which had just caught a lizard for breakfast; Reddish Egret in good breeding colours; 3 Lesser Goldfinches in beautiful vivid yellow & black plumage; a couple of young Great-horned Owls on a huge nest, high in a live oak; all the herons/egrets and the 3 ibises in one weekend; the beautiful colours of the Green Jays; good, long look at the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl; singing Painted Buntings; and a female Wild Turkey stealing seed from the bird feeder at San Pedro Camp! TRIP LIST * Lifers * Least Grebe Pied-billed Grebe Eared Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Brown Pelican Black-bellied Whistling-Duck Ruddy Duck * American Wigeon Blue-winged Teal Northern Shoveler * Redhead Lesser Scaup Red-breasted Merganser Reddish Egret Tricolored Heron Little Blue Heron Snowy Egret Great Blue Heron Great Egret Cattle Egret Green Heron Yellow-crowned Night-Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron White Ibis * Glossy Ibis White-faced Ibis Black Vulture Turkey Vulture * Cooper's Hawk * Harris' Hawk Broad-winged Hawk White-tailed Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Crested Caracara Peregrine Falcon * Wild Turkey Northern Bobwhite Sora (heard only) American Coot * Whimbrel Long-billed Curlew Lesser Yellowlegs Solitary Sandpiper Spotted Sandpiper Willet Sanderling * Western Sandpiper * Least Sandpiper * Pectoral Sandpiper * Wilson's Phalarope Black-necked Stilt * Lesser Golden-Plover * Black-bellied Plover Wilson's Plover Killdeer * Snowy Plover Laughing Gull * Franklin's Gull * Gull-billed Tern Mourning Dove * Common Ground-Dove Greater Roadrunner Great Horned Owl * Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl Common Nighthawk * Buff-bellied Hummingbird * Golden-fronted Woodpecker Ladder-backed Woodpecker * Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet * Olive-sided Flycatcher Vermilion Flycatcher * Brown-crested Flycatcher Couch's Kingbird Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird * Great Kiskadee * Green Jay * Chihuahuan Raven White-eyed Vireo * Red-eyed Vireo Northern Mockingbird * Long-billed Thrasher * Curve-billed Thrasher * Bewick's Wren Carolina Wren Barn Swallow Cliff Swallow Tufted Titmouse (Black-crested) * Lesser Goldfinch * Tropical Parula * Louisiana Waterthrush Savannah Sparrow * Field Sparrow * Lark Sparrow * Botteri's Sparrow * Olive Sparrow Summer Tanager Northern Cardinal Blue Grosbeak Indigo Bunting Painted Bunting * Hooded Oriole Baltimore Oriole Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark Great-tailed Grackle * Bronzed Cowbird Brown-headed Cowbird Total species 108 Lifers 40 Helen Baines erithacus19@hotmail.com |
Kenedy Ranch Trip Report April 1999 |
KENEDY RANCH, South Texas - April 23rd-25th 1999 In April 1999 we went on a birding weekend to the Kenedy Ranch. It was a privately organized tour with 2 experienced Texas birders. I believe the Kenedy Memorial Foundation have changed the rules on access to the Ranch, so please have a look at their own website for contact information. KENEDY RANCH The Ranch, south of Kingsville, is to the east of Hwy 77, the major route to the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It is owned and managed by the Kenedy Memorial Foundation and is over 235,000 acres in size. It is considered the last large tract of native coastal prairie habitat in Texas and for over a century it has been a highly protected game preserve. This area was once home to the last tribe of Karankawa Indians. There are vast areas of native grasses and oak mottes, migrating sand dunes, salt flats, bays and artesian wells, providing habitat for the diverse wildlife on the ranch, although we only saw a few deer, a Texas Horned Lizard (endangered) and a land turtle (not sure of the species, but also endangered). The birdlife is prolific! We drove down from Houston on the Thursday afternoon and stayed in a motel at Kingsville, so that we would be sure to be at the rendez-vous point on time, on the Friday morning. We'd been informed that the group would not wait for late-comers, and everyone had to be signed in to the Ranch together. We met at the ranch gate, south of the Sarita Rest-stop, on Hwy 77, and then proceeded to bird along the ranch road on our way to the San Pedro Camp, our home for the next 2 nights. The camp was constructed in the 19th century, before the ranch was purchased by Captain Mifflin Kenedy, the main house being used as a residence until the 1920's. Our accomodation was very comfortable, with most of the rooms having private bathrooms. Electricity was supplied by generator & we had fun barbecuing both nights, and there was also a good propane gas oven in the kitchen. The cost for the 3 days was $180 per person, when last checked in April 2001. We all took our own food and beverages for the weekend, to keep the costs down. The tour guides did supply morning coffee and water and sodas throughout the day, while touring the Ranch. Its best to take a large cooler, as the camp fridge was not large enough to accommodate everyone's supplies. THE BIRDING On Friday morning, before arriving at the Ranch, we had a great start to the trip by getting our first life bird of the weekend - a Harris' Hawk, perched on a post by Hwy 77, near Riviera. On the ranch we easily saw the South Texas specialities : Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, Tropical Parula, Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, Green Jay, Hooded Oriole and Buff-bellied Hummingbird. The total list for the whole group was about 155 -160, but we didn't pick up as many as we weren't always in the right place at the right time! Nevertheless we are very satisfied with the 108 species that we did get, and my life list has now grown to 328. The weather was hot & very windy (20-30 mph on Friday) which kept away not only the mosquitoes (good!), but also the migrating warblers, etc, that we were hoping for (not so good!). The wind did not keep away the ticks, though - anyone going in the future be warned! The second trip the following weekend had perfect weather conditions for a good count of migratory birds - their total list topped 200. We rose at 5:30 each morning in order to get an early start and were rewarded with great looks at the Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet singing his heart out very near the camp. We then car-pooled in pick-ups and SUV's and spent the rest of the day driving over the ranch's caliche roads, picking up 17 lifers on Friday, 18 on Saturday and 5 on Sunday. We would like to thank the leaders of our trip and the many more experienced members of our group, who helped us see our 40 life birds. Highlights were Greater Roadrunner, which had just caught a lizard for breakfast; Reddish Egret in good breeding colours; 3 Lesser Goldfinches in beautiful vivid yellow & black plumage; a couple of young Great-horned Owls on a huge nest, high in a live oak; all the herons/egrets and the 3 ibises in one weekend; the beautiful colours of the Green Jays; good, long look at the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl; singing Painted Buntings; and a female Wild Turkey stealing seed from the bird feeder at San Pedro Camp! TRIP LIST * Lifers * Least Grebe Pied-billed Grebe Eared Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Brown Pelican Black-bellied Whistling-Duck Ruddy Duck * American Wigeon Blue-winged Teal Northern Shoveler * Redhead Lesser Scaup Red-breasted Merganser Reddish Egret Tricolored Heron Little Blue Heron Snowy Egret Great Blue Heron Great Egret Cattle Egret Green Heron Yellow-crowned Night-Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron White Ibis * Glossy Ibis White-faced Ibis Black Vulture Turkey Vulture * Cooper's Hawk * Harris' Hawk Broad-winged Hawk White-tailed Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Crested Caracara Peregrine Falcon * Wild Turkey Northern Bobwhite Sora (heard only) American Coot * Whimbrel Long-billed Curlew Lesser Yellowlegs Solitary Sandpiper Spotted Sandpiper Willet Sanderling * Western Sandpiper * Least Sandpiper * Pectoral Sandpiper * Wilson's Phalarope Black-necked Stilt * Lesser Golden-Plover * Black-bellied Plover Wilson's Plover Killdeer * Snowy Plover Laughing Gull * Franklin's Gull * Gull-billed Tern Mourning Dove * Common Ground-Dove Greater Roadrunner Great Horned Owl * Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl Common Nighthawk * Buff-bellied Hummingbird * Golden-fronted Woodpecker Ladder-backed Woodpecker * Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet * Olive-sided Flycatcher Vermilion Flycatcher * Brown-crested Flycatcher Couch's Kingbird Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird * Great Kiskadee * Green Jay * Chihuahuan Raven White-eyed Vireo * Red-eyed Vireo Northern Mockingbird * Long-billed Thrasher * Curve-billed Thrasher * Bewick's Wren Carolina Wren Barn Swallow Cliff Swallow Tufted Titmouse (Black-crested) * Lesser Goldfinch * Tropical Parula * Louisiana Waterthrush Savannah Sparrow * Field Sparrow * Lark Sparrow * Botteri's Sparrow * Olive Sparrow Summer Tanager Northern Cardinal Blue Grosbeak Indigo Bunting Painted Bunting * Hooded Oriole Baltimore Oriole Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark Great-tailed Grackle * Bronzed Cowbird Brown-headed Cowbird Total species 108 Lifers 40 Helen Baines erithacus19@hotmail.com |
This page was last updated on: March 9, 2004
